HackMIT is an
annual
Annual may refer to:
*Annual publication, periodical publications appearing regularly once per year
** Yearbook
** Literary annual
*Annual plant
*Annual report
*Annual giving
*Annual, Morocco, a settlement in northeastern Morocco
*Annuals (band), ...
student-run
hackathon held in the fall at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
.
History
HackMIT
The first HackMIT had around 150 attendees and took place in February 2013 at the
Stata Center as part of MIT's Techfair, a technology fair and corporate expo for MIT students. The event was open to college students of the Northeastern United States and had Techfair and
Palantir as its title sponsors.
HackMIT 2013
HackMIT was also held in the September of 2013 with 1000 attendees. The event featured Tom Lehman of
Genius
Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for future works, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabili ...
(formerly Rap Genius) as a keynote speaker and
Sequoia Capital as the event's title sponsor.
HackMIT 2014
In October, HackMIT 2014 invited 1000 undergraduates as well as
Adora Cheung, then-CEO of
Homejoy, and
Alexis Ohanian
Alexis Kerry Ohanian ( hy, Ալեքսիս Քերի Օհանյան; born April 24, 1983) is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is best known as the co-founder and executive chairman of the social media site Reddit along with Ste ...
, co-founder of
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, imag ...
, as keynotes.
Highlighted sponsors of HackMIT 2014 were
Amadeus
Amadeus may refer to:
*Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), prolific and influential composer of classical music
*Amadeus (name), a given name and people with the name
* ''Amadeus'' (play), 1979 stage play by Peter Shaffer
* ''Amadeus'' (film), ...
,
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
, and
Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...
.
HackMIT 2015
HackMIT 2015's theme was experimentation, and teams built projects ranging from an Apple Watch air guitar to computer vision analysis tools for security camera footage. Keynote speakers this year included Liz Fosslien, author of webcomic Out of the Office, and
Jack Conte
Jack Conte (; born July 12, 1984) is an American musician and co-founder and CEO of Patreon. He is one half of the band Pomplamoose, along with his wife Nataly Dawn, co-leader of the band Scary Pockets, and leader of the band Magaziine.
Career
C ...
, musician and co-founder of
Patreon
Patreon (, ) is a membership platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service. It helps creators and artists earn a monthly income by providing rewards and perks to their subscribers. Patreon charges a com ...
.
HackMIT 2016
The 2016 event focused on inclusivity and featured a random lottery admissions process combined with selected application reading. Keynote speakers included
Sanjit Biswas
Sanjit Biswas () is an American Internet entrepreneur and computer scientist and co-founder of Samsara (company), Samsara, an Internet of Things company headquartered in San Francisco, California that provides hardware and software for physical ope ...
, co-founder of Samsara and
Meraki, Inc., and
Dina Katabi
Dina Katabi ( ar, دينا قَتابي) is the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and the director of the MIT Wireless Center.
Academic biography
Katabi received a bachelor's degree from the ...
, MIT professor and director of the MIT Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing.
HackMIT 2017
HackMIT was held in September 2017, and over 1200 hackers came together from all around the world. Keynote speakers included
Steve Huffman
Steve Huffman, also known by his Reddit username spez (), is an American web developer and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Reddit, a social news and discussion website, which ranks in the top 20 websites in the world. He also co ...
, co-founder and CEO of Reddit and
Kyle Vogt
Kyle Vogt is an American engineer, entrepreneur, technology executive and robotics pioneer. In 2013, Vogt founded Cruise Automation, where he currently serves as the company's President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer. Cruis ...
, Founder and CEO of Cruise Automation.
Projects
Over the years, HackMIT has seen a wide variety of hacks, ranging from new web and mobile app concepts to novel hardware/software interfaces to machine learning and computer vision projects. In particular, HackMIT emphasizes building working prototypes rather than business plans or ideas, and participants are encouraged to be open about the technical challenges they faced in the judging process.
Some notable projects from past HackMIT events include:
* Lean On Me, a mental health platform which matches users to peer supporters
* Controlio, an app that allows users to control their computer via SMS and voice control
*
Project Naptha, a browser extension
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
...
for
Google Chrome that allows users to
highlight,
copy
Copy may refer to:
*Copying or the product of copying (including the plural "copies"); the duplication of information or an artifact
**Cut, copy and paste, a method of reproducing text or other data in computing
**File copying
**Photocopying, a pr ...
, edit and
translate
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
text from within images.
Blueprint
The HackMIT organizing team also hosts a high school hackathon, called Blueprint, on MIT's campus in the winter. In past years, this event has featured separate learning and hacking days, with students at MIT volunteering to teach classes on introductory web and mobile app development.
Open Source
HackMIT has developed open-source software for the hackathon community, releasing all of their internal and external tools o
code.hackmit.org HackMIT software lik
HELPqan
Gavelhas been used by dozens of events.
Puzzles
Since 2014, HackMIT has released an annual admissions puzzle, similar to an online
puzzlehunt
A puzzle hunt (sometimes рuzzlehunt) is a puzzle game where teams compete to solve a series of puzzles. A puzzle hunt can happen at a particular location, in multiple locations, or via the Internet. In a puzzle hunt, a puzzle is usually not acc ...
that guarantees admission to the first 50 teams.
References
{{reflist
Hackathons
Software developer communities
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Software development events
Recurring events established in 2012
2012 establishments in Massachusetts